MFK

Plumpynut, a peanut based paste, has revolutionalized the way in which severely malnourished children around the world are treated.  Many young lives have been saved as a result.  There is now increasing attention on how Plumpynut variants can prevent children from becoming malnourished in the first place.  In Haiti, both Meds and Food for Kids (MFK) and Partners in Health (PIH) produce products similar to Plumpynut.  In the below New York Times article, Andrew Rice describes the promise, politics, and profitability of Plumpynut.  Considering the negative impact that malnutrition has on the health and cognitive development of children in Haiti, it is well worth a read. 

When people think of Haiti, they often think of hunger, and not without reason. Though there has been significant progress over the past year, hunger remains a pervasive problem.  Achieving food security is fundamental to nutrition, health, education, economic growth, stability and all the other issues we lump under “development.”  There are well intentioned groups, such as this one from Kansas, that often try to send packages of food to Haiti.  It might make one feel good, but in reality, it does little good. There is much that we can do to promote food security in Haiti, but it is up to us to ensure that our time, energy, and resources make an actual, and not just a perceived, difference.